India to host global energy meet in Bengaluru next week

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate a three-day India Energy Week beginning this Monday in Bengaluru.

According to sources the prime minister will also attend a plenary meeting and hold a round table meeting with CEOs. The event is estimated to have more than 650 exhibitors and will see participation from 34 ministers from across countries.

This would be the first time, India is organising such a grand event, with record numbers of chief executive officers from the top energy companies set to participate in the big event in the country, sources said.

At India Energy Week, PM would unveil big energy initiatives including an acceleration of ethanol blending in petrol to 20 per cent under the initiative called E20 by 2025, which is expected to reduce vehicular emission as well as reduce the country's import dependency on fuels.

India has increased the ethanol blending in petrol from 1.53 per cent in 2013-14 to 10.17 per cent in 2022 and also advanced its target to achieve 20 per cent from earlier 2030 to now 2025-26.

India meets a sizable portion of its energy needs through imports, and diversifying indigenous sources is seen as an avenue to reduce the dependence on imported fuel.

In this year's Budget Sitharaman proposed to exempt basic customs duty on denatured ethyl alcohol, which is used in the chemical industry. According to her, this will also support the Ethanol Blending Programme and facilitate the government's endeavour for energy transition.

Meanwhile, at the India Energy Week, other initiatives to be unveiled by the PM include solar energy cooking tops, production of clothes by recycling million of plastic pet bottles and inauguration of a green hydrogen mobility rally, sources added.
The Prime Minister will also inaugurate green hydrogen mobility rally, according to the sources.